The 900-ton deckhouse of the first Zumwalt-class destroyer was delivered to Maine's Bath Iron Works by barge from a yard in Mississippi.

A futuristic class of destroyers that will be homeported in San Diego reached a key development milestone earlier this month at a shipyard in Maine, where the 900-ton deckhouse of the Zumwalt was added to its hull, creating a ship that strongly resembles some of the "Ironclad" vessels of the American Civil War.

General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works (BIW) is building three of the ships -- the Zumwalt, Michael Monsoor and Lyndon B. Johnson -- in a program that represents a major technological leap for the Navy. At 610-feet, the Zumwalts will be 105 feet longer than the modern Burke-class destroyers. In fact, they'll be the largest destroyers ever built for the Navy and the first to be propelled entirely by electric drive systems. The Burkes have gas turbine engines, and the old Ironclads were steam powered.

On Dec. 13-14, BIW used four cranes to lift the Zumwalt's deckhouse into place. The deckhouse is low and slanted and fits atop a hull that is long, narrow and somewhat shaped like a knife. The low profile is meant to make it hard to detect the ship by radar and sonar, and to enable the vessel to perform a variety of missions in shallow coastal waters, including land attack. The Navy might equip the Zumwalt ships with railguns, an experimental weapon that's meant to use electromagnetic energy to fire projectiles about 100 miles. General Atomics in San Diego is one of the lead contractors on the railgun.

With the addition of the deckhouse, the first Zumwalt is 70 percent complete. The Navy says the ship will be christened and commissioned next year, and delivered to the fleet in fiscal 2014. It's not yet clear when the ship will make the transfer to San Diego, which is also home to the Navy's new littoral combat ships. Construction also is underway on the two other ships, the Navy says.

The CSS Virginia, built from the remains of the unfinished Merrimack, entered service during the start of the American Civil War.
Wikipedia Commons

The CSS Virginia, built from the remains of the unfinished Merrimack, entered service during the start of the American Civil War.

The Zumwalt will cause a stir when it arrives; it is dramatically different than the Burke-class destroyers docked in San Diego Bay. The ship's low profile and exterior are reminiscent of the CSS Virginia, a Confederate Navy Ship that had an iron exterior. The Virginia was part of an historic shift in which navies went from using wooden sailing ships to steam powered vessels armored with iron or steel. These "ironclads" were widely used during the Civil War, and led to the development of larger, more powerful warships throughout the world.

The Zumwalts also represent profound change because they'll be operated with a crew or 130-150, or less than half the people it takes to sail Burke destroyers.